Toni Morrison And I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou

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The paper deals with the comparison and contrast between the two novels; Beloved by written Toni Morrison and I know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Both the writers were black females and very aptly describe the lives of the blacks in their respective novels.
Introduction:
Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison were two influential women in the literary world, especially in the black community. These ladies discussed about the miseries of black community in their own unique style. Both of them have been blessed with a way of articulating, telling stories and their experiences in a unique way, which attract others to their masterpieces and inspire readers as well as writers to aim for the best in their work.
Comparative Study of the Novels:
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Beloved is an ironical title. The name of Sethe’s daughter was beloved and she was murdered by her. Beloved was to be loved but, was killed because of the fear of slavery. This murder of Beloved reflects the miserable conditions of slave as they preferred to die then to be slaves. Beloved is the voice of whole black community being humiliated at the hands of whites. The title, “I Know Why the Caged Birds Sings”, is the struggle of a black lady to get freedom and identity and she wants to get out of the cage. The cage is the restrictions and difficulties of life and the song of the bird is the scream and struggle of bird to get rid of this …show more content…
Sethe and Paul D reflect displacement in Beloved. Sethe ran from the Sweet Home to save her child from being slave and this was her first displacement but was later caught and brought back to the same life of slavery. Paul D also displaced “from Ohio to Cincinnati, then to Baby Sugg’s house” pg(41). Similar displacement could be seen in I know why the caged birds sings. In this novel, Maya and Bailey were displaced from one place to another. They shuttled around to seven different homes ; from California to Stamps to St. Louis to Stamps to Los Angeles to Oakland to San Francisco to Los Angeles to San Francisco. She, in the very beginning said that I did not come to say and this refers to her displacement throughout the novel. In the beginning she herself said “I didn’t come to stay”

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